Showing posts with label Writing Advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing Advice. Show all posts

Sunday, July 13, 2014

An Assembly??

Hey everybody. So I have been asked to do an assembly at an elementary school come October time (Thanks mom. You could have NOT bragged to your boss about me being published.) and I have no idea what to do. I think I want to have a PowerPoint presentation about how to outline a story. The principal and reading specialist at the school want me to get the upper grades excited to do the Youth Nanowrimo program that they're going to be doing. So I was going to give them tips on how to get their story going. I was also going to give out outlining packets as "rewards" instead of a signed copy of my book unlike most authors. My book is not a book for 4-6th graders.

I need your advice and help, everybody. Are there any frequently asked questions that need answering? Or whole "How the heck do you do this" things? I just need advice on how to TALK to small children. I'm at a total loss. Help!!

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Almost Sequel?

This post has nothing to do with my recently published book Beyond the Unknown. Sorry. I do have a question for my readers that I really do need answered.

I wrote a book in April for "Camp Nanowrimo" called My World of Glass. It's a book I'd been writing since a few days after Christmas 2013 and I finished it a little bit into June. It was long and was pretty amazing if I do say so myself. Anyway, my problem is I want that book to be edited and made even more amazing, but I want to write the same book in a different character's perspective. Is this a good idea? Or should I just go through and do the alternating chapters thing? All I know is that if I did make them two separate books then Dessa's perspective would be book one (that's the book I just finished) and Demetri's POV would be book two. I love Demetri and want him to have his say and I want to write the book in his point of view but I don't know which would be easier or more practical. The book is already relatively long (for books I write, still relatively short compared to the world's standard) and it would probably double in length if I did Demetri's POV. But the thing is, I want to have this book with the same scenes and very little differences, just in a different character's POV. That's not how you do alternating chapters. I'm so confused about it! So I decided to go on and ask my blog readers for their opinions. Should I edit My World of Glass and add in alternating character's chapters and have the same scenes from Demetri's POV, or should I just write a "Part Two" almost sequel? What say you, world?

Monday, March 17, 2014

Last month. . . Hopefully?

Alright, so, as this update stands, I am currently editing my book with all of the comments my amazing editor has given me. She spent so much time on it for me and I am so grateful and I do not fault her in any way for things that have popped up along the way. I totally understand how crazy life can be. She has given me a lot of great advice and as I have gone through it, I have discovered something pretty amazing. Here is what I posted to my G+ page.
...Before I started getting my book ready for publishing (Beyond the Unknown ...) I had just over 51,000 words within it. [That equals out to a]bout 175 pages. I am currently at that exact word mark that I started at, and I still have [somewhere around a] quarter of the book left to go! Estimated final word count ... is OVER 80,000 words. ...
I'm super excited for it, if you can't tell! However, due to my incredible work load (which is only going to get heavier as school starts to 'wind down' with finals and last term) and the work load I know my editor is going through, I am going to pull a very UN-SMART move, one that I do not suggest to ANYONE. I am going to be publishing my book after this one edit. After I finish editing this book, (I'm hoping and praying it will only take to the end of this week) I will go through it once more (more of a skim over really, to make sure there are no formatting issues or stupid mistakes I missed) and then I will submit it. My goal  is to get my book publish on or very near to April 1st (Yes, I know, April Fools' Day, I'm trying not to make this a joke though) and if I am able to publish early I might just do an early release on Amazon Kindle. We will see though.

So, more on my independent publishing. How this is going to work is I am going to publish my book to Amazon in two forms. One is going to be Amazon Kindle (and it will obviously be cheaper than a paperback copy) and the other form will be the paperback copy. The company I am publishing through (Createspace, which can be found here, if I haven't already posted a link, and you can publish many MANY things through them and NOT JUST BOOKS!!!) will also have the book available in its libraries (which might be a TINY bit cheaper if I get my way) and will also be putting it out through expanded distribution which will get it available to libraries, schools, small book stores, whoever. This might be the more expensive option though because it will be going through many people. And finally, I am going to be putting a few copies into my local bookstore (so those who know me personally are lucky) and I may be doing a book signing with them. Maybe. I have also had the suggestion proposed to send it to Costco and do book signings there. That might be interesting and it would definitely get my name out.

All in all, this is really making me super excited. I have never been this excited for my writing. And here I am! This is going to be awesome.

Have a great night!
Rose